Virgin Prunes
| Virgin Prunes | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) |
Post-punk , dark wave , gothic punk , gothic rock |
| founding | 1977 |
| resolution | 1986 |
| Website | www.virginprunes.com |
| Founding members | |
| Gavin Friday (Fionán Martin Hanvey) | |
singing |
Guggi (Derek Rowen) |
singing |
Dave-id Busaras Scott (David Scott Watson Jr.) |
| Strongman (Trevor Rowan) | |
| Dik (Richard G. Evans) | |
| Pod (Anthony Murphy) | |
| Haa-Lacka Binttii (Daniel Figgis) | |
| former members | |
Drums |
Mary d'Nellon (David Kelly) |
The Virgin Prunes were an Irish post-punk band that lasted from 1977 to 1986.
history
In the mid-1970s there was a clique in Dublin called Lypton Village . The three friends Paul Hewson (aka Bono ), Fionán Martin Hanvey (aka Gavin Friday ) and Derek Rowen (aka "Guggi") were among the founders . The group lived a fantasy world with its own conventions and tried to renounce bourgeois society to a large extent. The punk movement and its “anything goes” attitude gave birth to two music bands from “Lypton Village”: the later U2 and the Virgin Prunes (Irish jargon for outsiders, freaks).
Gavin Friday , Guggi ( Derek Rowen ) and Dave-id Busaras Scott (David Scott Watson) did the vocals . Bass played Strongman (Trevor Rowan), guitar Dik (Richard Evans, the brother of U2's The Edge ), on drums sat Pod (Anthony Murphy), who was later replaced by Mary d'Nellon (David Kelly) and on the keyboards in the first years Haa-Lacka Binttii (Daniel Figgis).
Her early gigs were more like performance art that often reached the limits of the audience's taste. The reason for this was less due to various musical experiments in their performances with punk / post-punk , industrial , gothic rock , dark cabaret and avant-garde music , but rather to the free play with sexuality and gender roles . The band developed an idiosyncratic aesthetic , which above all expressed pride in being an outsider with all its facets. Thus the band managed to build up a cult status among their fans by the end of the 1970s and to become an important band in the burgeoning movement - and the music style that goes with it.
“The third, and perhaps most important, new band didn't come from the hyper-infested streets of London or the poor suburban hell. The Virgin Prunes came from Dublin, a city that combined the worst of both worlds. "
Although they always distanced themselves from the Gothic movement , they later confirmed on their homepage that they corresponded to the term Gothic in the original sense.
"Gothic is and remains the fastest and easiest way to summarize a certain musical school, to which Alien Sex Fiend belong as well as [..], the Virgin Prunes."
One of the main reasons for distancing themselves from the scene was probably their emphasis on individuality and the fear of being artistically restricted.
The Virgin Prunes always saw themselves more as an experimental post-punk band and less as a Gothic band, although they embodied the typical musical characteristics, even if mostly played and presented with an experimental note.
"Friday shrugs off the Goth day, preferring to align the Virgin Prunes with the Post-Punk Vanguard"
"Friday resisted the term Gothic, and preferred to classify the Virgin Prunes as a post-punk pioneer."
"As such, The Virgin Prunes were always more a case of fitting in with Goth by virtue of not fitting in anywhere else."
"Per se, the Virgin Prunes always fit more into Gothic than they fit into anywhere else."
In general, the influences of most post-punk bands are often far-reaching and varied, as is the case with the Virgin Prunes.
In particular, Gavin Friday's opinion on the stylistic definition was later evidenced in several books and interviews.
“I would say that I am neither bored nor particularly interested. The point is simply that we have never seen ourselves as “Goths”, although that describes a lot of what we have creatively implemented during this time. To make it short: the VIRGIN PRUNES played this sound a long time before the media even appeared on the scene with this term. However, these categorizations mean nothing to me. "
In 1981 their first single, Twenty Tens, was released . In the same year the "A New Form Of Beauty" project followed, which included a performance and an exhibition in the Douglas Hyde Gallery at Trinity College, Dublin . The planned book and video did not materialize, but it was published on cassette in 1982.
In 1982 the album … If I Die, I Die was released . It's less experimental, more oriented towards the post-punk guitar sound, but still covers the key issues of purity and beauty. The album was produced by Colin Newman (from the band Wire ) and thus got its own style. In the same year a single from Pagan Lovesong was released .
In 1984 the Dave Ball produced LP The Moon Looked Down And Laughed was recorded and released in 1986. On this album, the band went in a new direction, mainly with the live performances and replaced the confrontational aspect with more melodic pieces and ballads, which, however, still reflected the dark atmosphere of the band. Gavin Friday in particular was influenced by classical chanson singers , which he would later expand on in his solo career. The lyrics on the album are consistently dark, theatrical and dramatic. In general, the later, quieter works of the Virgin Prunes can be assigned to the Dark Wave .
The psychological and physical stress of permanent touring and the frustration caused by the music industry led to differences within the group. Guggi was the first to leave her (and later became a successful painter ), Dik very soon followed him. When Gavin Friday left the band in 1987, this meant that the Virgin Prunes would soon be dissolved.
But to this day the band retains a great influence on musicians. Björk , Billy Corgan and Nine Inch Nails are among their role models.
In 2004 Mute Records released the work of Virgin Prunes on five CDs . Gavin Friday himself took over the supervision of the digitization : A New Form Of Beauty , ... If I Die, I Die , Heresie , The Moon Looked Down And Laughed and Over The Rainbow .
Discography
- A new form of beauty 1-4 (7 ", 10", EP & MC, later also abbreviated as CD, 1981)
- Heresie (double 10 ", CD, 1982)
- Pagan Love Song (7 ", EP, 1982)
- The faculties of a broken heart (7 ", EP, 1982)
- If I die, I die (LP, CD, 1982)
- Over the rainbow (LP, 1983)
- Artfuck (CD, 1983)
- Sons find devils (video documentation, 1985)
- The moon looked down and laughed (LP, CD, 1986)
- Love lasts forever (7 ", EP, 1986)
- Don't look back (7 ", EP, 1986)
- The hidden lie (LP, CD, 1986)
- Pagan Love Song (remix CD, 1993)
Guest appearances and solo projects
- Gavin Friday, guest appearances:
- David Ball : In Strict Tempo (1983)
- The Fall : The wonderful and frightening world of The Fall (1984)
- The Fall : Call For Escape Route (1984)
- Coil : Scatology (1984)
- U2 : One (1992)
- Naomi Campbell : Babywoman (1994)
- Atonalist: Atonalism (2017)
- Gavin Friday, solo projects:
- You can't always get what you want (EP, 1987)
- Each man kills the thing he loves (EP, 1989)
- Adam'n'Eve (LP, CD, 1992)
- Shag Tobacco (LP, CD, 1995)
- Peter and the Wolf (CD, 2002)
- Catholic (CD, 2011)
- Gavin Friday film music (selection):
- Short Cuts (1993)
- In the name of the father (1993)
- Moulin Rouge (2001)
- In America (2003)
- The Prunes (follow-up project with Strongman, Marry d'Nellon and Dave-id Busaras Scott):
- Lite Fantastik (1988, with Dik Evans)
- Nada (1989)
- Blossoms and Blood (1990)
- Dave-Id solo projects:
- Smegma 'Structions don't rhyme (1995)
- Bushy Luxury (2000, with Toshi Hiraoka)
- Mind Is Blown (2017, with Toshi Hiraoka)
- Selection Box (2017)
- Dik Evans guest appearances:
- Current 93 : Christ and the pale queens mighty in sorrow (1987)
- The Prunes: Lite Fantastik (1988)
- Current 93: Earth covers earth (1988)
- Princess Tinymeat, solo project by Haa-Lacka Binttii:
- Sloblands (EP, 1984)
- A Bun In The Oven (EP, 1985)
- Lucky Bag (EP, 1986)
- Put It There (EP, 1986)
- Angels In Pain (EP, 1986)
- Herstory (LP, 1987)
literature
- Rolf Vasellari: Virgin prunes: The faculties of a broken heart. Black Sheep Press, Zurich 1985.
Individual evidence
- ^ Rip it up and start again. virginprunes.com, October 2, 2010, accessed July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Virgin Prunes. Sputnik Music, accessed July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at ... page 55. by Courtney E. Smith
- ↑ Virgin Prunes ... If I Die, I Die. Musik-Sammler.de, accessed on July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e homepage. virginprunes.com, accessed July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ Bono: A Biography p.25
- ↑ a b Simon Reynolds: "Rip It Up And Start Again" (Eng. Throw everything back and start again) , Postpunk 1978-1984 , ISBN 3854452705
- ↑ "Shadow Worlds - Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock", pp. 101ff, ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ "Shadow Worlds - Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock", p. 21ff, ISBN 3-85445-236-5
- ↑ Simon Reynolds: "Rip It Up And Start Again" (Eng. Throw everything back and start again), Postpunk 1978-1984, ISBN 3854452705
- ^ Mallory O'Donnell: Pressure Lines & Graceless Heirs. Stylus, August 7, 2006, accessed July 23, 2017 .
- ↑ Markus Kolodziej: Sacred Heart of Gavin. Ox fanzine , June 2009, accessed July 23, 2017 .
Web links
- Official website
- Virgin Prunes at Allmusic (English)
- Virgin Prunes at Discogs (English)